It's an older radio with a telescopic antenna, no other input for reception. Any way to improve this? Work with all types of metals and wire so have access to most, would connecting to the metal beams help?
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Improve radio reception in a metal building?
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Connecting the telescope to some metal in the building would probably only make it worse, because most of the building metal is grounded to earth and that's where the signal will go -- to earth ground, not your radio.
The best thing to do is attach a long insulated wire to the telescope and run it along the ceiling toward a window.
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I have had some success tying a length of wire to the antenna, and moving it around until it improves, but it's limited. You want to strip the insulation off the wire at the end so it makes electrical contact w/ the antenna.
If you have a rare radio like the CC Radio from CCrane.com (a *superb* radio, BTW, the best ever), it has a "Ground" connection. Sometimes if you connect this to the third prong in an AC outlet (the ground), this can help. Make *sure* you know which prong to use, or don't do this part! Actually, I forgot you can usually warp the "Ground" wire to the screw holding on the AC outlet cover plate. That works also.
I now stream several radio stations over the internet for this reason.
The problem is that a metal box (or a metal building) weakens most of the radio waves coming from outside.
To prove this, u can do a simple experiment: put your cellphone in a metal box (an empty can of ...beans would do) put the lid on, and try to call your cell from another phone; you'll get 'no signal' message.
in your case then: the simplest thing is to either move the radio closer to a window. The other thing u can do is: cut a piece coax cable (like the one you connect your TV) long enough to run it from your radio, outside. connect one end to the base of the existing antenna (keep it folded), the other end (outside) to a piece of simple wire (as long as your original antenna). With that, you basically bring in the signal from your new antenna outside all the way to your radio, with the coax. the coax is made so it can't be used as an antenna. So, with that, is as if you have the radio outside the building.
get a alrge copper wire and tape it to the nearest window in a spiral without the sides touching and then attach that wire to da antena of the radio
buy a new one